Dr. Jason Comander Awarded RPB Career Development Grant

BOSTON (Jan.22, 2014) -- The Harvard Medical School (HMS) Department of Ophthalmology has been granted a $250,000 Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Career Development Award to support eye research conducted by Jason I. Comander, M.D., Ph.D. The support will be provided over a four-year period.

The RPB Career Development Award Fund was established in 1990 to attract young physicians and basic scientists to eye research. To date, the program has given awards to 174 vision research scientists in departments of ophthalmology at universities across the country.

Dr. Comander’s current research efforts are focused on studying patients with inherited retinal degenerations, including retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which is caused by genetic mutations inherited from one or both parents. Most people who suffer from RP typically experience a steady visual decline during their lifetime, with many patients becoming blind. The disease affects approximately 100,000 people in the U.S. and 2 million people worldwide.

“This research addresses a major challenge in understanding the mechanisms that underlie the pathology of inherited retinal disease, and will help us determine which gene misspellings in patients are disease-causing and which are benign,” says Dr. Comander. “This is an important time in the field of inherited retinal degenerations, when early successes with gene therapy and molecular diagnostics need to be expanded and translated into broad clinical use.”

About RPB RPB is the world’s leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to medical institutions throughout the United States for research into all blinding eye diseases. For more information on RPB, RPB-funded research, eye disorders and the RPB Grants Program, go to www.rpbusa.org.